Editing Seattle Central Library (section)

==History==
There has been a library located in downtown Seattle as far back as 1891; however, the library did not have its own dedicated facilities and it was frequently on the move from building to building. The Seattle Carnegie Library, the first permanent library located in its own dedicated building at Fourth Avenue and Madison Street, opened on December 19, 1906, with a [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]] design by Peter J. Weber. [[Andrew Carnegie]], whose patronage of libraries later included five others in Seattle, donated $200,000 for the construction of the new library. That library, at {{convert|55000|sqft|m2}}, with an extension built in 1946, eventually became too small and cramped for the city's growing population by the 1950s; it had also sustained structural damage from the [[1949 Olympia earthquake]].<ref name="1906 library - HL">{{cite web |last1=Becker |first1=Paula |title=Central Library, 1906-1957, The Seattle Public Library |url=https://www.historylink.org/File/9869 |website=HistoryLink |access-date=October 24, 2021 |date=July 1, 2011}}</ref> A temporary library was set up in the Electric Building on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Olive Way; originally built in 1909, the building was owned by [[Puget Sound Power and Light]] until December 1956, when the company sold the building to [[Frederick & Nelson]] and moved its offices to the [[Puget Power Building]] in [[Bellevue, Washington|Bellevue]].<ref>{{cite news |title=F. & N. Expansion Centers Around Old Power Building |work=The Seattle Times |date=December 2, 1956 |page=41}}</ref><ref name="First material move - Times">{{cite news |title=Friday to See Completion Of Library Move |work=The Seattle Times |date=March 20, 1957 |page=13}}</ref> The Carnegie library closed on March 22, 1957, with demolition commencing that July.<ref name="First material move - Times" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Demolition Contract on Library Awarded |work=The Seattle Times |date=July 9, 1957 |page=11}}</ref>

A second library, at five stories and {{convert|206000|sqft|m2}}, was built at the site of the old Carnegie library and opened on March 26, 1960.<ref name="1960 library - HL">{{cite web |last1=Wilma |first1=David |title=Central Library, 1960-2001, The Seattle Public Library |url=https://www.historylink.org/File/4157 |website=HistoryLink |access-date=October 24, 2021 |date=April 16, 2003}}</ref> The new building designed by architects Bindon and Wright, with Decker, Christenson, and Kitchin as associates, featured an international-style architecture and an expanded interior, with features such as drive-thru service to offset the lack of available parking. [[George Tsutakawa]]'s "Fountain of Wisdom"  on the Fifth Avenue side (relocated to Fourth Avenue in the current library) was the first of that artist's many sculptural fountains. A remodeling finished in 1972 gave the public access to the fourth story, dedicated to the arts and sound recordings. By the late 1990s, the library became too cramped again and two-thirds of its materials were held in storage areas inaccessible to patrons. Renewed consciousness of regional earthquake dangers drew concern from public officials about the seismic risks inherent to the building's design.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spl.org/lfa/capplan/libforall/centprop.html |title=Proposal for the Central Library, 1998 Libraries for All capital plan. |date=March 13, 1998 |access-date=May 26, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2006-07-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720090715/http://www.spl.org/lfa/capplan/libforall/centprop.html |publisher=Seattle Public Library}}</ref><ref>Victor Steinbrueck, ''Seattle Cityscape'', [[University of Washington Press]], Seattle, 1962, p. 71.</ref><ref>{{cite press release |title=Tsutakawa Fountain reinstallation begins at new Central Library on Monday, April 12, 2004 |date=2004-04-09 |publisher=Seattle Public Library |url=http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=about_news_detail&cid=1081560568406 |access-date=2007-11-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219220936/http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=about_news_detail&cid=1081560568406 |archive-date=2009-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1928  | title= Seattle Public Library's new central library building is dedicated in 1960  | author=HistoryLink Staff  | date=2000-01-01  | publisher=HistoryLink  |access-date = 2007-11-07}}</ref>

To make way for the current Seattle Central Library, which is the third library building to inhabit the city block between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, the second library was closed on June 8, 2001,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kaiman |first1=Beth |title=Central Library doors will close this week |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20010606&slug=library06m |access-date=March 10, 2024 |work=The Seattle Times |date=June 6, 2001 |page=B1}}</ref> and demolished that November; a temporary library had opened on July 7 in rented spaced at the [[Washington State Convention and Trade Center]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite news |title=That chapter is over |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=C12EB6BE1393489FA580F5880B8B058E&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F0EFBC8EA21BB2DE5 |access-date=May 8, 2021 |work=The Seattle Times |date=November 10, 2001 |page=B4}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Davis |first1=Jiquanda |title=Temporary library site will open tomorrow |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=C12EB6BE1393489FA580F5880B8B058E&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F0ED719F4227057A3 |access-date=May 8, 2021 |work=The Seattle Times |date=July 6, 2001 |page=B1}}</ref> Funding for the new Seattle Central Library building, as well as other construction projects throughout the library system, was provided by a $196.4 million [[municipal bond|bond measure]], called "Libraries for All," approved by Seattle voters on November 3, 1998. The project also received a $20 million donation from [[Bill Gates]], of [[Microsoft]].

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Image:Seattle - Collins Block 01.jpg|The Collins Block at Second and James; the public library was one of its original 1894 tenants.
Image:Seattle Public Library - 1900.jpg|[[Henry Yesler]]'s former mansion at Third and James was supposed to be a permanent home for the library, but burned January 2, 1901.
Image:Seattle - Carnegie Library 01.jpg|The Carnegie Library, on the same site as the current building, was Seattle's downtown library for just over a half-century.
Image:Seattle Public Library looking SE at 4th Ave entrance.tiff|The Bindon and Wright library, which replaced the Carnegie Library on the same site, stood for over 41 years.
</gallery>